Our Student Services team provide support to students experiencing difficulties with their learning or social & emotional wellbeing. The team include the Deputy Principal: Student Services, the School Psychologist, the Chaplain and the Community Health Nurse.
Students requiring support through intervention programs are managed through our Response to Intervention approach.
Teachers provide more time and raise the level of support rather than lower expectations for students identified as below expected proficiency. More of the same is not effective intervention. We adopt a Response to Intervention approach.
Tier 1: Exemplary, explicit initial instruction (80% of cohort)
Tier 2: Small group up to 4 students (bottom 15%) eg. Literacy and Numeracy Intervention Groups
Tier 3: Individualised instruction (weakest 5%) eg. Reading Academy, Bond Blocks
Our School Psychologist, Steph Lanternier, is at the school every Wednesday and Thursday. Her role is to support teachers to identify the needs of students at educational risk or with social and emotional wellbeing concerns and to develop intervention plans or strategies to support them within the classroom.
School Psychologists do not counsel students. All referrals to the School Pyschologist are made through the Deputy Principal: Student Services following rigorous assessment by the class teacher and consultation with families and the Student Services team.
Our chaplain, Leon Henney, is provided by YouthCare through funding from the State Government and from our school budget.
Leon is here each week from Tuesday to Friday. His role is to support the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of students, staff, and families, as needed. He spends time in classrooms each day as well as organises lunch time activities for students.
Leon organises and runs the Breakfast Club before school on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Our Community Health Nurse, Siti Abu Bakar, is a registered nurse with the Child and Adolescent Community Health service for the Armadale Region. Siti conducts Kindy Screening, including vision and hearing, and also supports families and teachers with any student health concerns.
She can be contacted by email: siti.abubakar@health.wa.gov.au or by phone: 9391 2220
We partner with Down South Therapy Services to provide greater accessibility for families wanting Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy for their child to support their Documented Plans at school. The cost of the service is provided by families to Down South Therapy directly, either through private health funding or NDIS funding. The school is simply providing an office space for the therapists on site. The process is as follows:
Families are welcome to continue to use their current service provider or any other company in Speech Therapy or Occupational Therapy if they so wish. If access is sought during school hours, the two forms mentioned above will need to be completed and submitted for approval.
If you wish to have an external Therapy Provider come in during school hours to conduct therapy with your child, please complete the following forms and return to our Deputy Principal: Student Services for approval:
External Service Providers Family Request Form
External Service Providers Service Schedule
The Dental Therapy Service provides free general and emergency dental care for all students enrolled from Pre-Primary up to Year 11.
The Dental Therapy Centre is located at Harrisdale Primary School and is open on Tuesday from 8am-4pm and Thursday from 8am-5pm.
They can be contacted on 9393 2482 or by email: HarrisdaleDTC@dental.health.wa.gov.au.
